Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Pointer vs. Lab?

There are a lot of people who m take their pets out hunting , and as far as my " shoot from the hip" attitude goes, it sounds to me that unlessa person is running a pure bred dog , you are turning up your nose at them.
I hunt with bred GSP, and so do some friends of mine,BTW but some also hunt with labs and do just as well in the uplands.

I also hunt with the Cavalier however, and it's a lot of fun, although we don't put the birds up as much, but the dog has fun and so do I .
Is there a problem with that?
I don't care if a person was running a bull dog, I wouldn't hunt with one , mind you, but some do.
I've seen a lot of rescues from the SPCA that were papered and were good dogs.
I suppose next you are going to tell me I need to hunt with a SXS or an O/U or I'm not hunting "properly" ?
So how did your pure bred dogs come into being , anyway? Divine intervention?
Cat

Pure bred dogs didn't come to be from haphazard couplings of dogs, nor from allowing "pet" breeding. They came from dedicated breeding for a given set of characteristics. When those who were breeding for a solid hunting line got a pup or two or three that wouldn't hunt they killed it/them. I wouldn't have any problem at all with pointing labs if they had to be registered seperate from a traditional lab. Breeding for a characteristic that many of us feel is non-desireable in labs and then registering them all in the same breed creates problems, no different than those who would breed simply for color or conformation and neglect the natural abilities that make the breed what it is. As to good rescue dogs, the training process is very important and it begins when a dog is a young pup. Why would anyone want a dog that is over a year old that likely has no training at all and in many cases is traumatized in some way. You're stuck with the beast for a decade or so, up your odds as much as possible by thorough research and buying the absolute best you can afford. If all you want is a pet, then by all means, get a rescue dog and enjoy. If it turns out that it can hunt a little, so much better!

That pretty much sums it up!

As far as me personally (good, bad, or indifferent).....

I love GSPs but knew nothing about breeding/standards when I got started and acquired my first three dogs from other people. I was like most others and just wanted a good "hunting dog" when I got my first one. Sadie was probably the best dog I will ever have the pleasure of spending time with and caused me to fall in love with the GSP breed. I have her ashes downstairs and fully intend on having her buried with me when it's my time. She was a great hunter and more human than most people IME. That being said, we didn't breed her because she had a genetic defect (elongated pupil) from line-breeding.

My wife picked out the second one (backyard breeder) and while Carli was an awesome family dog with good hunting instincts and an INSANE retrieving instinct - she was very sensitive and naturally gun-shy early on (trained her out of it) so we didn't breed her either.

I purchased our 3rd GSP, Roxy (in my avatar), from a member on this board and she was a hunting machine w/ all the qualities (physical/mental/social) I was looking for in a breeding bitch. Deciding to have her bred was just 1/2 the equation though. The other 1/2 was finding a suitable stud which I touched on in one of my first posts above (worked trials spring/fall for three years!). I ended up going with a 7xCH 4xRU / 2xNGDC FC AFC named Slicks Cuttin Wild - "Joker". The titles are nice but what was more important to me was that I was breeding to a dog I knew had solid lines and that I knew was great all-around from watching him in action on multiple occasions. I could've bred to a GSP with great credentials right here in my backyard, but, when it was time, I drove 8 hours each way (from NE to WY) in order to make sure I had the exact breeding I wanted which cost 3 days of vacation, gas, food, hotels and a $750 stud fee. All well spent because I feel I did my part to better the breed with our seven pups. The one we kept (Ruby) shows a lot of promise but only time will tell if she makes the final cut for breeding.

I'm not afraid to fix a dog and end up with a great hunting buddy that doesn't meet the standard. That wouldn't take away from my enjoyment one bit but not doing so would take away from the breed and that would be VERY bad mojo IMO.

FWIW - I was so impressed with castnblast's Pudelpointer, I did some reseach and found a tidbit on Wikipedia which I'll share because I thought it was a very interesting. It's a good snapshot into how a great breed was actually developed and recent enough that we actually have a pretty specific record.

Here's the actual quote from Wikipedia:


As Ranger1 stated, you can bet your butt there was one heckuva lot of dogs culled outta those litters over the course of 30 years. Sad but true and an absolute requirement (at least fixing) if you really want to develop a new breed or better an existing breed instead of just watering one down....

If everything works out, in addition to a great hunting dog we'd like to have a dog that also knows how to play poker. Right now, the best we've done is UNO.....we have a LOT of work to do!!